Jetset Plumbing and the Ronald McDonald House SEQ

Jetset Plumbing prides itself on its heavy involvement within the community as well as its charity work, as a heavy presence in South-East Queensland we believe it is essential for us to give back to the community.

One of our favourite charities is the Ronald McDonald Houses, for those who do not know, the Ronald McDonald Houses are attached to major women's or children's hospitals and provide a home for seriously ill children and their families.

Upon learning that your child has a serous illness and requires specialist treatment that is not available at smaller regional hospitals closer to home, many families worry about the logistics and expense of searching for accomodation. These houses are attached to hospitals to help minimise and ease the burden of having to search for such accomodation on top of an already stressful situation.

In Queensland there are two of these houses, the Ronald McDonald House South Brisbane is located directly across the road from Lady Cilento Children's Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House Herston is located next to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. The Herston House has 50 rooms and is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere!

The only criteria to be eligible to stay at a Ronald McDonald House is to live 50kms or more from the treating hospital in Brisbane. Families staying with us must:
• Have a child who is transferring to Brisbane from a regional area to receive treatment or;
• Have an expectant mum who has been identified as having a complicated pregnancy and needs to reside in Brisbane until her baby or babies are born.

Ronald McDonald Houses depend on public and corporate donations to remain running and to provide families with accomodation to stay near their loved one, the service is completely free for families, however if the family wishes and is able to, they may make a donation. Families are unable to book accomodation in advance as the severity of cases and duration of hospital stay is subject to change at any time, when most rooms are full in the Houses, families are prioritised according to; the degree of severity, distance of travel and the length a family is likely to stay — the longest time a family has stayed in a House is 828 days!

Ronald McDonald Houses are open every single day of the year and are equipped with everything that would be found in a common family home. Families can get a good night's sleep, prepare their own meals and feel at home, knowing that they are just moments away from their child in hospital. All the Houses have bedrooms, laundry facilities, kitchens, lounges and play areas and families can receive support from staff, volunteers or other families that are sharing similar experiences.

Not only does the South-East Queensland Ronald McDonald House Charity have two houses for families to live in, the charity also has three Family Room's these are located at the Gold Coast Hospital NICU, the Gold Coast Hospital Children's Ward and the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital. A Family Room differs from a House as it is not used primarily for housing, it instead provides a getaway for families within the hospital, they contain lounge areas, sleeping rooms, laundries, cooking facilities.

Sometimes it helps to get away from the emotionally draining waiting rooms of hospitals and these Family Rooms aim to do just that by providing you and your loved ones with a home away from home feel within the confines of the hospital. The Family Room develops programs for parents with sick children, these may be in the form of a Morning Tea, as to allow parents and carers to get to know each other and develop relationships to reduce stress and loneliness of long days waiting in the hospital.

At Jetset Plumbing, we have recently pledged to donate $1 to South-East Queensland Ronald McDonald House Charity for every Facebook page like that we receive, our goal is to donate $5000 to this wonderful charity. Donations are used to build new Ronald McDonald Houses or to sustain existing accommodation, if you are wanting to donate personally, head to Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia and you can choose what aspect of the charity your donation helps.